OS Mango Haze, Headbanger, Sour Jealousy

Pete_vs_Nature Tough week. There is nothing to do on the plants directly. But water distribution in medium, Far Red ratio and climate have been off. Headbanger is already fighting with limited water, while I suspected over-watering on Mango (was PPFD stress mostly). I am glad the plants didn't refuse anything else right off the bat, so I am content to keep going.

Pete_vs_Nature Week 3: Plants are doing pretty good, but I definitely stunted Headbanger. Still suspecting watering issues, I gave her a small dose of water. To my surprise, she started drooping almost immediately. I concluded over-watering and was dead-wrong. It took me days to force myself to flood her, expecting a disaster - but this time she picked back up right away. I must have given her too little while testing, the droop resulting from higher uptake than what was being fed. Mango showed a sign I never wanted to see again, after having had a terrible phosphor deficiency in an earlier run. Her petioles (violets) are asking for P, and P she got. Her leaf colors are a bit optimistic in these shots, she has that lockout-aura all the time still. I couldn't keep up with managing humidity very well, so Leaf-VPD was often at ~0.8. That alone will cost the plants some serious growing time.

Pete_vs_Nature While I am fighting VPD and lung room climate in the background and juggling values in their feeding chart, the plants are taking off. I have never seen such healthy plants in this stage myself, so I was facing a major problem. The leaves that I should have tucked the entire time got 100% uptime instead. Nodes actually started growing underneath the petiole from their roof fan leaves, and I didn't want to disturb the plants. I paniced to find the right time to start LST, and researched like a maniac. The result? Attempted 90° bend on all top colas. SJ snapped on the inside, but that was to be expected and the rupture turned out minor. Mango got her stem bent over way too far, just like Headbanger. All colas would have required me to tie them back down 2 times a day, but loud stress signals from SJ and Mango made me stop training and let her recover. In hindsight, leaf tucking would have solved these issues much better and I had to replace LST with HST to catch up. A day later, the scrog came down to help me sort the mess I made.

Pete_vs_Nature The plants are exploding. I constantly have to check their water levels, having to keep up with their demands surprised me and caused a lot of back and forth. I am running out of ideas on how to train the plants further, and am considering removing the scrog for a bit and tie them down for a cleaner structure. The way my tent is set up, I am running out of space to keep working on the plants 😬 Maintaining lower humidity levels has been a real struggle, as temperatures increase and ventilation removes the product of my dehumidifier. I am sweating to keep up, over- and under-watering here and there. Just measuring the top layer with an inadequate sensor comes with it's issues.. Every move I make reflects on the plants appearance, and struggling with climate is intense work for a home grow environment.

Pete_vs_Nature Hey everyone, Week 6 is in the bag and here are a few shots. Plants are enjoying a delicately balanced (manual labor) but stable VPD of 1.35 atm and are... dare I say it .. praying most of the time today! I re-did my entire VPD calculation for night time and every day I keep tweaking my setup, identifying problematic zones (easy fire-hazards when certain equipment interacts in auto mode!) around temp reduction without removing dried air. Single, 20° vent orientation changes apparently have massive effects on mixing my cool and hot airflow, and I am starting to think about placing a Undercanopy Light near the door + maybe vertically at a tent corner. See the controller shot for what happens when you leave the receiving water bucket without cover, as your dehumidifier literally blows dry air over the surface it spills into all night. (ignore VPD calcs, this is during night). I am still trying to figure out how much they drink, as environmental conditions determine their ability to uptake. I am placing soil covers with some distance after watering, to keep that upper zone moist but with enough O² access. I also managed to nearly rip off two node-1 colas, one on Mango and one on Headbanger. I have never seen plants that have issues carrying their own weight (although all of that stems from akward training) during early flower already. I used cushioned wire and also tape - because that heavy Mango cola was only supported by a towel I placed underneath it to grab my stuff. This cola now went straight up and I will not touch it as it is also secured into the net. Mango deemed my attempt at subdueing her main cola a bit unfair so she took off on this freshly fixed cola, literally while it was healing up, in a move I would expect to see from Apollo Haze. This screwed up my placement and I am since itching to take the net off again, rotate Mango 180° and fix her in. But I am certain, without help I would likely destroy more than I would gain. All in all - I am entering a happy tent every day with the girls praying at the low sunrise light. I need to keep contamination down and find a way to give them more lights. In the background I am trying to make sense of connecting terpene and cannabinoid profiles to the endocannabinoid regulatory layer, in order to smooth out functioning across something I learned is called the HPA-axis. Lots, and lots of learning with near zero background, but this will loop back on strain selection and terpene targeting, should this not overwhelm me with it's complexity. As I write this, I am smoking my first Alien vs Triangle result, somewhat optimized on monoterpene preservation while trying to avoid sesqueterpene production as much as possible. The result is really interesting, there is mild relaxation without sedation, completely functional daytime profile with increased immersivity; with a funky vibe / aura in the background that seems to dance around the fresh forest berry wash that could have been retained by freezing likely, that is now adding more and more overripe and floral linalool and heavier sequeterpene notes. the flavour is -intense-, I have never smelled cannabis that did not, in fact, smell like cannabis. That's all for this week, excited to see Week 7 unfold.

Pete_vs_Nature Ahoi and welcome, this week I had to find my way around the results of Mango being caugth and tightened into the net. Light management became an issue: for the first time I saw how the high light intensity at Mango's sturdy 82cm side colas almost singed off pistils (with light, not heat). Those nodes decided to become the new main colas, after the central cola lost it's top canopy spot. The cola that almost broke off is still fixed in the center of the tent, and as a result, is getting light blasted at it. 😬 I build it a little personal Cloud directly over her central colas to achieve some spot PPFD scattering, which has helped me in the past. Image will be in next weeks update. SJ (69cm final height after training) and Headbanger (59cm final height after training) were, on top of that, -underlit-. I probably lost a good 6 days to underfeeding them with light, and after my adjustments they are still not quite where they would like to be. I used my undercanopy-lights to install a vertical light bar at the entrance, to help out Headbanger directly and provide some angled light into Mango's bushy structure. I used the other bar and installed that horizontally over SJ & Headbanger at an angle, so not much of it will hit Mango. I feel like ripping out my entire scrog-setup and structuring everything out anew, but yeah, damage and intense stress during peak flower production would probably result in a worse outcome for the 4 of us. Next time, I will have to plan my tent layout and light setup better, so I can account for these massive height differences without burning plants. For now, the tent seems at peace. Plants have finalized their structure, and the result of the missing light is unfortunately largely visible in thick, deep green leaves, ready to photosynthesize, but really just sitting there, praying oftentimes, in a resource vs energy uptake stale-mate. The tally count becomes high for Headbanger: Underwatering during veg, VPD issues during early nights + training stress already made her decide to flower fast. The relative low-light environment now reduced the total capability of the plant directly, as all other protocols provide nearly adequate baselines. But hey - what we know - we know. The nug is from 👽 Alien VS Triangle I mentioned last week, bottom canopy position, monoterpene focus plant (reduced capacity for sesqueterpene building) - I collect these low hanging fruits separately, when in need of something that hits right but also keeps me as active as a bee if needed. Downside? Need different strain for sedating properties, but those juicy main colas curing for ~9 weeks now will help with that just a little. To me it smells like a syrupy wash involving several forest berries, sometimes a redcurrant top-note releases as well. As it cured it definitely brought home it's underlying herbal body, gaining in complexity but still leaving the stage clear for the berry top-notes, that are converting more and more into their floral counterparts. I swear I detect sweet marmelade from the bag itself after this time, but that is not detectable in the nugs themselves. See ya next week!

Pete_vs_Nature Week 8 revealed which plants made it through just slightly bruised, and which plant nearly collapsed under all stress factors involved so far. I also went nose-first into a terpene state deep dive. ** SJ is sitting in the back enjoying the show and has clearly been the most resistant & content plant - that indica lineage showing through seems to help with that, I learned today. Headbanger is now content. After a racy start towards flowering from drought-stress during veg, she relaxed a lot and had just high osmotic pressure keeping her leaves up high. I feared salts accumulating, but it turns out she was slightly on the fuller side these last days and letting her dry back removed the pressure. Mango revealed to me why sativas (my closest to landrace so far) can have such a high learning curve. From seemingly prefering diluted drinks from seedling to early flower, she responded first when Calcium levels were not in line or Phoshporus was hard to access. I learned sativas depend a lot more on ideal transpiration conditions for nutrient management and that indica's can "take a hit" here more easily. I was planning for a leaner, larger plant and thought I prepared a decent structure - I got a side-branching powerhouse that demanded an even larger frame, such as not to create a botrytis-only biome underneath her canopy. Any greed displayed during lolipopping resulted in high-stress removal of lots of foliage & some doomed bud structures causing humidity pockets. Together with light stress and a weird, temporary heat-from-below situation, this already caused a lot of pistil browning, much more than I'd be happy to show at her younger age still. Trichomes will be browned in part as a result; and doing the unpleasant tally-count now will help differentiate from natural trichome-browning later, such as not to confuse harvest times. This accumulation of collateral damage is no joke - if you need to trigger hermaphroditism, grab a sativa and push her near the edge like I did, and perhaps add a cold-shock too - all female seeds will be yours, but no thanks to the weed. ** I went on an oilfactory exploration of all the plants this week, once for their bud-"aura" and once for trichome structures I ruptured somewhere farther down their colas. With a rather thick sesqueterpene smell present on all auras, I assumed I had lost a lot of monoterps already, but trichome rupture revealed that they are present, intact, and preserved so well they simply don't gas out as fast as the sesqueterps I am trying to avoid a bit more. Headbanger & SJ both had a warm, woody, slightly spicy and dry aura around them. Think wood-workshop near a desert oasis, as some air from the local spice market drifts by. Mango also had this, but faintly so and less spicy. Headbanger developed a clear peanut - peanut butter smell on top during week 8, which -really- surprised me. For the ruptured trichomes, SJ conjured a vibrant, hot jungle scene, that almost dipped my nose into some stagnant, biologically active, algea-covered puddle that is enjoying direct hot sunlight (this, in the most pleasant way imaginable). Headbanger burst out with intense menthol / eucalyptus sharps & bitters that settled into ... wet soil. Think of smelling cool, dark, dense garden soil after just having brushed your teeth. Together with the pleasant aura smell, this strain screams intense & unforgiving high to me. It scares me, and I am delighted to try this. With Mango I did not see it coming. Her ruptured trichs underneath that faint sandy wood smell revealed a warm tropical cocktail with fruits fading in an out around Mango, some ripe banana notes as well. I even refused to note down "Mango" at first, because I thought her name had me biased; but after confirming the myrcene - terpinolene interaction and smelling some pruned leaves, I just have to say it: IT SMELLS LIKE MANGO. Mango may tell a slightly less optimistic story after her last stress events, but from what I've learned about her so far, I'd be looking to grow her again & more to her liking anyway. *** Stay tuned for next week & learn from my mistakes :)

Pete_vs_Nature Howdy, here's a brief Week 9 update: It's become autumn in the tent! Temps are dropping, plants are showing signs of senescence one by one (although some reluctantly so, am I right SJ?). Headbanger, as expected, is finishing up first. Leaves are crisping up, colors are showing a slow, clean fade. I was pretty sure I burned her a little juding by the green tips, but Mephisto previously described this on the profile page, so maybe a little bit of both? Mango, finally cut out of the scrog net and turned 180°, got light-burned AGAIN and I am since giving her as many stable days as possible to get off the stress-edge, to retain those remaining beautiful terps. She is finishing faster due to a troubled history, but I am very proud to have her (alive at this point) and already learned a LOT about sativas. SJ is still watching the show from the corner, has settled building her rainforest canopy, and is just slowly bulking every day. Most content plant (well, as indica representation more resilient anyway), is hesitantly absorbing some Nitrogen from her fluffy, roughy, textured canopy. She'll let me know when things go south. Not gonna lie, OSMH, after some reasearch into her "natural" soil conditions, already caused me to try and wrap my hot dehumidifier exhaust around the pots, in order to avoid scary root temp collapses during nights towards 15°C. I am giving the plants warm-ish waterings to raise soil temps slightly, but watching her suffer more is driving me a little nuts. She definitely managed to take a scratch at the little pride I still had remaining 😂 I clipped some videos from my personal vid log, enjoy. I think I have a LOT of larf incoming 😓. Don't be greedy.

Pete_vs_Nature Week 10 / 70 Days: Week has been calm, I am mostly trying to adjust some hardware (lights) for this and the next run. Climate stable, I am letting some cooler drifts in here and there. - Mango's light burn kept creeping, my interventions were too soft. She is the reason I am so busy working on the setup, trying to diffuse and scatter, adjust intensities. She is bulking up nicely, although I can tell she got interrupted and is rushing to finish up. Her trichomes do tell the story, about 10% amber is permanently imprinted on top buds. Farther down towards the green canopy, there is plenty of cloudy and clear trichome heads. Will post shots next week! - Headbanger is doing great and aging well. She looks to be first in line and harvest is approaching. Her top buds still smell like slightly roasted peanuts, which I am craving like crazy. But that minty, earthy caliber hidden deep inside keeps me from "exploring" more 😆 - Sour Jealousy is the pinnacle plant of this run. I am very proud to see her as the healthiest plant that I ever had the honor of growing. Her predictable schedule is relaxed, always looking ready to go much longer, should the season have it in the cards. From my point of view, her buds now have their top bracts swollen to near max, pistil browning is slow and steady. As I need a daytime profile, she is looking prime to harvest earlier than I had anticipated. I will check all trichomes soon. This has been the first "press play and go" week, save for some troubleshooting and climate management. But with these plants in my heart, the atmosphere in the tent is changing considerably every day, as they finish up their season. What has always been a relaxing and available zone to enter is becoming a mental clip-show, trying to imprint last impressions, smells, haptic feelings and rustling in the wind. Harvest is approaching, and no matter how well the plants grew - very soon they will be faded memories and a couple of photos on a drive. I have sticky hands today that I didn't have on Day 70. 👻

Pete_vs_Nature With SJ out of the race, Mango had 2-3 days in the tent with Headbanger before she got cut. I found nanners on her developing, see shots. I am glad my first nanner experience came in late and caused no issues. They enjoyed a light show in her last days, testing some blue supplementation angles for a few hours a day. Headbanger followed after 11 weeks on day 79, concluding this grown. This has been a great and challenging experience. More details in the harvest & bud reports! Have a good one.

Pete_vs_Nature 💀 Old School Mango Haze Auto #1 💀 Age : 77 days Life : Thriving under most conditions, several stress events caused cascade - early stress finish. Discovery of nanners at ~D76 confirmed final plant state. Flower Development : Large deviance in structural density between flower sites, top nodes well formed but interrupted in bulking / ripening phase. Swollen but increasingly sparse bract population down the canopy with interrupted base formations; all amplified by unsuccessful cultivation strategy (reduced lollipopping) Pistils : Almost fully brown prematurely as of Week 8+. Early browning likely prevented self-pollination from undetected early nanner-structures. Trichomes : ~10% amber, fairly even. some outliers likely at 5-15% Fully ripened | Freshly ripening Ratio : 1.27:1 or 103:81g Smell undisturbed: Exhibits warm, loud, spicy wood profile with a minor fruit twist; some pepper on exhale; + minor stress based sulfur shift Smell ruptured: Fruity, warm wood/root with oriental spices, ripe mango in the wind, faint herbal bitters, some umami Terp Loss: Intense 'tropical fruit-cocktail' terpinolene quantities (cultivation target) observed during flowering could not be preserved due to cultivation issues. Monoterpene loss of roughly 50% against baseline likely. Sesqueterps + Sulfur dominate profile as stress response layers. Taste (combusted with tobacco): herbal forward with warm mango / myrcene background-body, slightly spicy Tactile density: 6.5/10 | dense, firm bracts against healthy, medium-loose structure that moves as a whole Trimming: Hand-trimming, 16h total (11.5g/h) due to cultivation issue Larf: 44% (trimmable into quality flower), ~2% unusable as flower product Drying: Extended low VPD cool dry in custom chamber (12D with increased botrytis risk) → humidity stabilization (extended due to sickness) → TerpLoc bags nested inside RH stabilized container as final storage. Pharmaceutical Profile: Pleasant ramp into array of 'sunshine-feelings': happyness, clarity, drive, relaxation. Very pleasant, clean sativa experience. Almost no sedation even after meaningful terp-loss and profile shift suggest baseline expression likely provides more intense, euphoric high with increased drive. The Silver-Lining & Parting Gift: As this story unfolds before my eyes, I have to consistently rub them: Sampling the products of this run after trimming, a total of 2 seeds have been found. One in Sour Jealousy, one in 505 Headbanger. Right now, both cultivars likely got pollinated during Week 7-9 by OSMH, when she likely started producing undetected nanners as a final survival response. Turns out, she could have ended the entire grow right then and there. But my fan placement accidentially created a pollination-barrier against SJ & HB during the entire run! This only changed mildly during Week 7-9, when some additional air was blasted deep into the canopy of OSMH to prevent moisture pockets. This must have caused just enough turbulence at the overlapping canopies in the center of the tent to cause rare, gentle but definitive cross-pollination events. So this begged the question: How on earth is Mango's flower not full of seeds? Turns out her premature pistil browning largely stemming from light burn actually -prevented- her self-pollination attempt, the pistils must already have ceased to function. The pollen? It did NOTHIN. Well, -almost- nothin. If this turns out to be true, I will just have to grow out these beautiful ladies under special circumstances (increased nanner-chance): OSMH x Sour Jealousy (Fem, Auto, Rodel) F1 OSMH x 505 Headbanger (Fem, Auto, Rodel) F1 How cool is that?! I am actually asking.

Pete_vs_Nature Okay now this has been ridiculous. SJ re-affirmed my choice as stability anchor, in case my Haze experiments go wrong (they kinda did*) - and she delivered big time 😵 *they did, with a funny and unbelievable twist: I am the proud owner of two seeds, this one likely is " Mephisto OSMH × 42FB SourJealousy — F1 Fem Auto (rodel) Her flower is extremely dense, which comes with a challenge for spotting bud rot. So far I have not found any bud-rot during hand-trimming, but given her structure and my extended drying, I am not too concerned with finding a spot or two. Here's my logs, excuse the dump: ---- 42 Fast Buds : Sour Jealousy #2 State: Age: 73 days | Life: Content & relaxed throughout all phases. Very healthy & confident representation throughout. Trichomes: ~10% amber | Pistils: Slow, gradual fade towards 80% brown (indica representation; full white pistils possible at correct harvest time) Flower Development: Very evenly matured and ripe flower with light senescence fade (-) deeper into sub-canopy. Larf: ~1.5% Fully matured/ripened to freshly maturing/ripening ratio: 2.6:1, or 72% : 28% Hand-trimming: 6h 46/h Drying: Extended low VPD drying (12d) with increased botrytis risk. Temporary humidity stabilization → grove bags nested in RH container. Flower State: 62% RH on all but top main colas (still burping). Monoterpenes noticeably degraded (30%+ perception) Pharmaceutical Profile: Under my (drying) conditions: very long lasting, mellow. Sedative-leaning but daytime-profile with strong, pleasant body aura / high. Strong focus / immersion, some tendency to wander off. Relaxed, focused working / occupation. Creates ""bubble"" reducing distractions, without inducing artificial happiness other than from (largely) increased comfort. Reduced motorical drive slightly debilitating but never couch-locking. High THC contents (apparent during use) create ceiling for daytime profile. Smell: sweet forward, reminiscent of sweet almond profiles, creamy elements. On rupture: deep herbal profile with surprising mint and earthy notes (background); + a ""vibrant, lively spin"" on those herbs as a warm, almost fennel-like umami / wet nest inside profile (only on well preserved flower). Taste: no good data (combusted with tobacco)

Pete_vs_Nature 💀 505 Headbanger #1 💀 Age: 78 days Life: After early draught issues, very healthy and stable cultivar. Great pathogen resistance, botrytis was essentially invitied several times for HB. Flower Development: Very evenly matured, ripe flower with light senescence fade (-) deeper into sub-canopy. Pistils: Even fade towards ~80% brown, pistils kept fresh well into age. Trichomes: ~10% amber, fairly evenly Fully ripened:Freshly ripening Ratio: 4.7:1 or 82%/18% Smell undisturbed: soft & sweet minty pine, earthy, then thick spice body / "paste" Smell ruptured: intense eucalyptus and mint notes, nesting in sweet, dense herbal tea & earthy background. impressively "fresh" Terp Loss: profile seems well preserved, peanut-butter-roasted notes not present in final product Taste: (combusted with tobacco) fresh, mints, herbs, sweet Tactile density: 7/10 Hand-trimming: 7.25h or 38g/h Larf: sub 1.0% Spoiled: 3.5g (botrytis) Other notes: trimmed material has considerable extraction density Drying: Extended low VPD cool dry in custom chamber (12D with increased botrytis risk) → untrimmed humidity stabilization (extended +3 days due to sickness) → TerpLoc bags nested inside RH stabilized container as final storage. Pharmaceutical Profile: Mephisto's ambiguity (product described as activating AND debilitating) matches the ramp I get as I consume increasing amounts. I get a strong hybrid-sativa leaner that supports activity and clarity with no couch-lock. That is not to say that this flower will not get you stoned. With higher doses, the term "forehead-pressure" from Mephistos description comes into play, as if the body high came to tuck you in with an array of pleasant sensations, while keeping up concentration & shifting me into contemplation mode. If you're not careful or new to cannabis, be aware that consuming beyond this point can get you into trouble with circulation easily, so be careful. High THC contents very apparent.